128 WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. 



fraternity, and intensify the patriotic affection we feel for our com 

 mon country. 



Following is a summary of the proceedings of the National 

 Grange, at its last session as furnished by Bro. J. W. A. Wright: 



1. The emphatic request for Congressional aid, with proper re 

 strictions, to the Texas Pacific Railroad. 



2. Action favoring the construction of a double steel track rail 

 way from the Mississippi river near St. Louis, to the Atlantic at 

 some north srn point. 



3. Resolutions favoring the speedy completion of the Spartans- 

 burg and Asheville Railroad, thus connecting Chicago and other 

 western cities with the Atlantic at Charleston, by a route of one 

 hundred miles shorter than by any other. 



4. Hearty approval of the resolutions of the Agricultural Asso 

 ciation of Georgia, which recommend the construction of canals to 

 connect the Ohio and Tennessee rivers with the Atlantic. 



5. Recommendation of government aid to repair the levees-on the 

 Mississippi. 



6. Advocating the opening, by national aid, of the mouth of the 

 Mississippi. 



7. Request to Congress for reduction of tax on tobacco. 



8. Expressed opposition to an injurious extension of patent 

 rights. 



9. Recommendations with regard to the Centennial Exposition at 

 Philadelphia. 



10. Resolutions favoring the early completion of the Washington 

 National Monument. 



11. Adoption of the Constitution of the National Grange, as 

 amended at the last session, and ratified by three fourths of the 

 State Granges. 



12. Other important amendments to the Constitution and By- 

 Laws. 



13. Careful preparation, for the use of the Order, of a Parlia 

 mentary Guide and a Digest of Decisions on Constitutional Ques 

 tions. 



14. Decisions to move the headquarters of the National Grange 

 from Washington to some point in the West, which the members 

 of the Executive Committee are to select. 



15. Distribution of part of the funds of the National Grange, as a 

 loan without interest to the different State Granges. This loan is 

 in the proportion of two dollars and fifty cents to each Subordinate 

 Grange in each State, but it is not intended to be divided among 

 the Subordinate Granges. 



16. Additional safeguards have been thrown around the expendi 

 ture of the funds of the National Grange for the ensuing year, look 

 ing chiefly to economy. 



17. No one result of this session was more satisfactory than the 

 proof that, in spite of all malicious assertions of hostile papers to 

 the contrary, our worthy Secretary and Treasurer have handled all 

 the funds entrusted to their keeping, with the most perfect in 

 tegrity. 



